The Universe as Performance Art, Colby Smith's first short fiction collection, is a disquieting, panoramic gallery exhibition obsessed with art's arranged marriage with Nature and the consequences of art itself. Here are stories of an epidemic of fossils repurposed as psychotropic drugs, the Marquis de Sade's first orgasm, queer love nourished-and destroyed-through making and documenting graffiti, and others. The title story is at once a staged, Fluxus-esque creation myth and a structurally daring prose poem. The Universe as Performance Art is an indispensable contribution to the Neo-Decadent international art movement canon and a formidable short fiction debut by any standard.